Initial Impressions

Rancourt's Beefroll loafer is often one of the top recommended choices for people looking to get into the made-in-Maine loafer world. Often mentioned alongside the Alden Leisure Hand Sewn. If you’re looking to get a new beefroll, is this the right one for you? Let’s find out.

The appeal of the collaboration is clear. Most of us don’t own a shoe factory, or a design team to tell us what is feasible. The only way we’ll be able to get what we really want is through a collaboration. The company then gets a chance to market a shoe and beat their competitors. But what drove two companies who have their own shoe factories and design teams to instead collaborate with their competitors? In this case, the environment.

Helm as a brand has been around since 2009. While that certainly doesn’t make them the oldest bootmaker out there, that’s older than you might think. Their first boot, built in a service boot style, beat Viberg’s service boot to the market by a year. The same is true of Oak Street Bootmakers, the current iteration of Rancourt, Truman, and many of the other well-known brands of today. All of these came after Helm. While far from ancient, they are certainly among the oldest of the new crop of bootmakers.

Nike’s latest and greatest in the comfort ream is ZoomX, and you don’t find any more of it than in this absolute beast of a sneaker – the Nike Invincible Run. While Nike positions this as a running sneaker, as you’ll see later in this review, this is all about comfort. If you want to run a marathon, get a Vaporfly. If you want to get around town in the nicest way possible, that’s where the Invincible shines.

EasyMoc did not have an easy birth. Their genesis was through a brand known as the New England Outwear Company, which later rebranded as Maine Mountain Moccasin. To say the reputation of these companies was not great would be an understatement. NEOC famously took numerous preorders, then rebranded as MMM and basically told everyone who had a placed an order over the past 6 months their orders were not coming. Then tried to keep their money anyway. As you can probably imagine, MMM didn’t last long after that.

The Nike Killshot 2 is a shoe that almost needs no introduction. Originally introduced as a J. Crew exclusive update to the Nike Killshot 1, the Killshot 2 took the forums by storm. They were so popular that they were never on sale, if you could find them in stock at all. With so many people joining the forums and asking for a way to get a sneaker in this style, “is this a killshot alternative” took on a life of its own.

Oak Street Bootmakers is a brand that is, of course, known for their boots. It’s right in the name. And, despite not being in the name, they are also consistently listed as one of the “big three” in the Maine handsewn world. However, while they have been making those for as long as they’ve been around, they’ve also been making more substantial, goodyear welted shoes. That includes this – one of the first they launched – the Oak Street Bootmakers Wingtip.

While you might think Jordan brand would want to bury the Green Bean like so many other failed colorways, they seem to have a soft spot for them. First, they were one of the major influences on the “What The” Jordan 5s from 2020. Then, Jordan brand announces they were re-releasing them. With them currently sitting around retail, should you pick up a pair? Let’s dive in.

This particular colorway was supposed to be Nike’s updated take on the well-known “Skunk Dunk” colorway. Confusingly, it was originally set to drop in March, and then ended up dropping in May. You’d think a Skunk Dunk homage would be dropping sometime in April, maybe around the 3rd week, but here we are.

Today, Grant Stone is most associated with their boots. That's always struck me as a bit unfortunate. With my own passion for tassel loafers, I thought there might be value in doing a bit of a deeper dive into this shoe. To see – are the Tassel Loafers getting the short end of the stick? Or, should the brand shift it’s focus entirely to their boot line?